During the depression years of the 1930s there was general concern that Australian children weren’t getting enough nutrients in their diet. In order to combat this, Thomas Mayne (the chief industrial chemist working for Nestle) set about working on a new product.
It reportedly took him four years (during which time he worked up to 80 hours per week with his wife, Dorothy) to come up with the winning formula which would ultimately become Milo. He combined malt extract (obtained from malted barley) with full cream milk powder, cocoa, sugar, mineral salts, iron and vitamins A, D and B1.
I attempted to develop a completely balanced food drink which contained all the necessary proteins and minerals.
The product initially starts its life in liquid form and is then dehydrated using a vacuum dryer. Once the liquid has evaporated, the solid particles (in differing sizes) remain. These particles then pass into a hammer mill where they are broken up into smaller grains and then finally packaged into tins.
The Dusty Box 